RobInMN

I looked it up. Yes, the Norwegian Bliss is the largest cruise ship to transit the Panama Canal. Took me a while to find a reference, but I finally found one related to the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver that said that Bliss is 60m (197'). Apparently with a 200' clearance, it has the same issue as Bridge of the Americas. Anyway, while that does exceed the Panamax, apparently it can be done at low tide (which it has to do in Vancouver as well). I suppose taller ships could go through the locks on the Atlantic (Colon) side and turn around in Gatun Lake and go back out the same locks? Don't know if anyone does that or if it makes any sense finacially. For reference, it also took me forever to find the height of the Quantum class, and finally found an article about the Verrazano-Narrows bridge that said Quantum is 213'. Oasis class is 236'. The Verrazano Narrows bridge has a 228' clearance. Some(all?) Oasis class ships have retractable stacks that allow them to clear it. BTW, Found a photo of Symphony and Odyssey side by side at CocoCay, and they are fairly similar in height.

I'm with you on Oasis/Quantum. Love the big ships. If we're doing Caribbean, I won't do anything other than Oasis/Quantum. All though, we did do a 3 night weekend get-a-way on Freedom just after COVID for the points (4 nights x2 for JS x2 double points). However, there are places they just don't (can't) go. From other discussions on this board about the Panama Canal, even with the new locks, you will not see an Oasis or Quantum class ship going through the Panama Canal until the Bridge of the Americas is replaced with something taller. Clearance is only 201 feet. Even the Voyager/Freedom classes are too tall. The Radiance class was built as a "Panamax", being the largest ship that will go through the locks. (Length: 950ft, Bean: 106ft, Height: 190ft) The "New Panamax" with the new locks is still limited by the height of the Bridge. (Length 1201ft, Beam 168ft, Height: 190ft) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panamax So, we are doing it on the Radiance of the Seas in Spring '24. Sorry, but I'm not doing a Vision class. It's also why we did 24 nights on Jewel last summer. The larger ships can't/won't do Arctic Circle and Iceland. Heck, even on Jewel, the pier/dock was about 1/3 the length of the ship in Honningsvag. 🤣

1 point for a cabin 1 extra point if you are in a suite (including Junior Suite) 1 extra point if you are solo in a double occupancy room

@QuickGold posted this link in the other thread on this: Royal says they aren't going back https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/01/26/royal-caribbean-we-have-no-intention-of-moving-back-old-muster-drill

Do you know for sure that it actually landed? From this, you can't actually see any landing. From other threads on this board, the general consensus (from some very knowledgeable people) is that the "helipads" on the front of many RC ships is really just a designated (medical) evac location for a basket. That helicopters don't actually land, and supposedly actually can't land as the ships structure won't actually support the weight. Again, this is not from anything I know personally, just what I've read here over the years. The video could be showing a helicopter coming in for such a basket evac as opposed to actually landing, you really can't tell either way. Still a cool video though! Thanks for posting it.

We've got plenty of snow up here in Minnesota to feed it.

We are due to board AmaMagna in 2 moths, Mar 27th, at Vilshofen, Germany. 2 weeks to Giurgia, Romania. We'll let you know...

We did a 3 night Coco Cay on Freedom Fall '21, and Odyssey was also there. Our next cruise was on Odyssey Spring '22, and it went to Coco Cay (rescheduled from Grand Cayman) and Jewel was also there. Our next cruise was on Jewel Summer '22. 🤣

Honestly, I'd say Youtube videos.

To piggyback what @Amberle3 said. The way I look at it is that it gives you a couple loyalty perks and a couple suite type perks. I don't think it's worth it for us, but we did it once. It was a anniversary cruise for my in-laws. My MIL enjoyed the reserved section at the shows and that sort of thing. And she felt a little special. So that was nice. But like what has been said before, if the difference between key and the VOOM plan is close enough in price, then maybe. But purely on it's own, no, I don't think it's worth it.

I think they may be referring to a certain third party blog (specializing in all things Royal Caribbean 😉 ), not one sponsored directly by RCL itself. It can be found on YouTube. They do a great job with their videos. But there are lots & lots of videos on YT.

There are many threads on this. I've only done 1 B2B, and experienced the last one, like @MommaBear55said. In my case it was last summer on Jewel in Amsterdam. I think I can summarize: TAD procedures vary by port/ship You may experience: Meeting as a group in a lounge or venue, being escorted off the ship to the terminal, where you will have to wait a minimum of 'x' amount of time before being allowed back onto the ship. You will remain in your group and be among the first (the first?) allowed back on. Same as #1, only instead of a minimum amount of time off the ship, you just wait until the ship is cleared to allow you back on. Could be immediate, no wait. Meeting as a group in a lounge or venue, and the customs agent comes on and you may need to check passports or something, but he clears you, and you remain in the lounge until the crew member says you can leave. Report to the theater by 'x' time. You walk in one side, get your new seapass card and an "in transit" card, go to a security podium they brought up from where you exit/enter for port days, and they scan you out of your first cruise, and into the new cruise, and they send you on your way. You are free to roam the ship immediately. In all cases, you get your new seapass cards, and they scan you out of the previous cruise and into the new cruise. I am not sure how that is done with #3.

yep, that's what we got. The lanyard is a pretty nice lanyard, it's RC branded with "All-Access" on it. If I wore my work badge on a lanyard, I'd probably use it. The all access "pass" on the lanyard doubles as a luggage tag.

Symphony btw, I believe we paid $119 pp in 2018

If you haven't already done Rome before, my suggestion would be to extend your Rome post-cruise to at least a week. There is so much to see. We did Western Mediterranean on Symphony in 2018, Rome to Rome, and spent a week in Rome first. We loved it, and there are still things we'd love to go back and do/see. Anything you want to do there, Colosseum, Vatican, etc. find the longest, most comprehensive "skip the line" tour you can. Especially if you only have 2 days. In Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia is the obvious one. I would suggest some sort of Gaudi tour. Ours was a ship one (as Barcelona was a port day for us), and our tour did not include going inside. We want to do that next time we are in Barcelona. The Montserrat Monastery is also on our list for next time, but we haven't actually done that before so take that into account.

in 2018, when we interported on Symphony in the Mediterranean, people that got on in Rome had a different color Seapass card. I think it was Orange(?). Barcelona passengers were the normal Blue. I don't think Royal Suite Class was a thing yet in 2018, so not sure if suite passengers had different colored cards or not. I don't recall noticing any other card colors, but I wasn't looking for them either.

When we did the Western Mediterranean (on Symphony), while the home port was Barcelona, we interported and went Rome to Rome. We spent a week in Rome before hand. Loved it, and still didn't get to everything. We need to go back. For us, "Rome in a day" just would not work. That meant that Barcelona was a normal port day for us. We did the Gaudí’s Architectural Masterpieces tour. That was very cool, however it did not include going inside the La Sagrada Familia, just a stop to marvel at it and walk around it. One thing to note on Florence & Pisa. Our port was La Spezia. The tour option that we had originally booked was the Florence & Pisa tour. I believe it's billed time was 9 hours (might have been 10??). However, once on board the ship, and after a few long days of tours, we changed to do just Florence only, which was still like 6 hours or something. We chose Florence over Pisa since my wife heard that's where you want to go for leather purses. Here's what the Florence & Pisa tour was looking like for us: 1.5 hours to Pisa 30 minute photo op at the Leaning Tower of Pisa (pretty sure that's all that was allocated, and did not include tickets or time to climb it) 1.5 hours from Pisa to Florence 30 minute walk to the tourist center (as close as busses are allowed) 2? hours on your own 30 minute walk back to the bus 2+ hour drive back to La Spezia So, 5 hours of driving just between the cities. 1 hour of walking (not sightseeing). Leaving just 3 hours for the actual cities. I know that only adds up to 8.5 hours, not 9 (or even 10?), but I think there may have been a short bus tour in Pisa or something. Not sure. Again, we switched to just Florence only. Plus, it was 4.5 years ago. Hard to remember exactly something we ended up not doing. Not to say don't do it. Just saying go into it knowing that it's a very long day. If you've had some shorter days leading up to it, it can be easier to take, but if you've done multiple long excursion days in a row, it might just be a bit much. Even doing just Pisa, it's 2-3 hours of bus total, Florence only is a minimum of 4 hours on the bus (plus 1 the hour of walking) In the ports we went to in the Mediterranean, I think someone already mentioned it, but a lot of things can be far from port. 1, 1.5, 2 hours from port each way.

We were just looking at this for Fall '24 also.

Yes, in June you will have 24 hours of sunlight above the Arctic Circle. We did this last June. We loved it! We thought Norway was absolutely stunning. We've never been to Sweden though. We went north of the AC on Thursday, and they announced that the next sunset would be Monday 🙂 The ship if very beautiful and in great shape for her age. The Blue Puffin North Cape is highly recommended in Honnigsvag. The train in Flam (there are a few variations, we did "Norway in a Nutshell). Both of these you'd need to book asap, they fill up fast. In Amsterdam, the Moovenpick hotel is literally right next door and about a 20m walk to City Center. If you are spending any extra days and want to see the Anne Frank House/Museum, be aware of the current ticket purchasing info. Right now, tickets go on sale Mondays for 6 weeks later. Some related threads I've posted in:

This is exactly the conclusion I came to as well. If it was free, I can't even begin to imagine the absolute mess the theater would be after a show. But yeah, on the surface I thought the same thing the first show I went to that had popcorn available.

Since the DBP policy only applies to guests of legal drinking age, I would say no. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/does-everyone-need-to-buy-the-deluxe-beverage-package

I thought about that, but so far I've only heard about people doing that when one person doesn't drink alcohol at all, which I didn't think applied here. But worth a shot. would be good info for this board if it does work.

Depending on how many alcoholic drinks the both of you will cumulatively drink, it's possible that you might be better off having either just your cabin mate (or both of you) getting the non-alcoholic "Refreshment Package" (obviously depending on whether either of you have interest in non-alcoholic drinks), then sharing your vouchers for alcoholic drinks and making a deal to split the costs of any additional alcoholic drinks. BTW, you just say "beverage package". I am assuming that you mean the Deluxe Beverage Package (DBP - ie. with alcohol). Since you are D+, I'm pretty sure you already know that the "every adult in the cabin" rule only applies to the DBP and not the normal "Refreshment Package".

A tip I read years ago, and has worked for us: Put right on the questionnaire: "No Sales pitch". You can also mention that directly to the staff member before they start. If you're lucky, you'll get a few more minutes of whatever treatment you're getting.

Look at the other answers specific to Alaska, but in general, I believe that the answer is yes, RCL can require an excursion to leave the ship. Might be extremely rare, but it can happen. For instance, when we were on Symphony 2018 Western Mediterranean, the port for Florance & Pisa was actually La Spezia. I don't know if the normal cruise port was too small or too busy, but for whatever reason, I am almost positive that the port we used was strictly a commercial port, and as such, I believe that RCL RCL required you to be on an excursion in order to leave the ship. No other traffic was allowed into the port (ie. taxis, independent tours), and it was completely unsafe to have any passengers attempting to walk through it.